Monday, June 29, 2015

A Spell of Inactivity

There hasn't been much time for sewing lately. Trips away, Sport days, people staying... it all eats into your time. I did manage to sew endless strips of stripes for the Jitterbug. I need to iron them all flat now. Yawn. I have put it to one side yet again until I can face it. Big quilts. Bah... It's all a bit repetitive and there is never enough time. I am falling out of love with the whole quilt. I have no staying power. I need to keep on chugging! I insist it gets finished as I know it will look great in the end. So small bits every now and then. Sew it all. Put it down. Iron it all. Put it down. Sew some more. Put it down...

But before that slog, I thought I would do something little, break things up a bit. I was really gutted that I didn't make myself a project case when I made Rachel one. I kept looking at the precious fabrics, thinking how lovely they all were. I just love looking at them. So I thought I might make a lap quilt instead. Something with similar improv log cabins again, but maybe add something simple to it which would show big swathes of the fabric.

Nothing complex, but nothing too orderly like the Jitterbug. Nothing that needs matching up too much. Something a bit wilder like the drooping foxgloves and leaning salvias I see everywhere at the moment.

Everything is green and pinks and purples and whites. I decided that it all fitted my fabrics and thought I might add some greens and peachy colours to add some colour dimension. Mix it up a bit so everything was too safe. I feel a bit wary as it might not be as nice, But I am really interested in making more tense colour choices and this seemed a good testing ground as it is just a bit of fun.

I don't really use green very much but I did have a small fat 16th from an Oakshott bundle which was very un-me so I thought put that in, plus a lovely dark green I had bought potentially to use on the postage stamp skip blocks but wimped out on. It's Kaffe Fasset. It's lovely and soft.

So I sat and thought. Then I stopped thinking and just cut some squares. I decided to make them the width of my ruler (6 1/2") as that meant I could just cut without thinking. I sewed two half square triangles from every square and trimmed them down to the closest round number (6"). Then I just sewed two together, two more and two more until I had 4 strips of triangles. Then I lay them on the ironing board in the afternoon sun and stared at them for a bit. Do they work? Are they nice? I think I like the green, purple and peach combo... I think.

In fact I think I wish it was just all solids. I am not 100% any of it but I feel quite bold trying it out. Those and the purples are quite subtle, they sit really nicely with the various neutral background colours. I feel like it might be tasteful. Well the bright pink stripes probably prevent that...

I really need one of those wadding walls where people hang up blocks and think about them. The ironing board has its limitations. In the end I just drew up a quick pattern which would allow for the log cabins I would create from all the scraps. I sewed the strips which meant the final half squares are 5 1/2".

So I have drawn up a rough plan for a lap quilt measuring 38" x 55". Small but good enough for the sofa. Just need to make my log cabins. All the scraps are waiting, ready to go! I do like a quick project. So far this has only taken a few hours.

I kind of think I'd like them to be even bigger. I have seen two pattern which use big blocks which I am really tempted by. This one or this one. I'd love to use my dusky purple Kaffe Fasset fabric on one of these. I could buy the exact fabric I need at CottonPatch when I go to Birmingham.
Anyway, back to the plan.